OOC: Yo. I'm trying out my fledgling setting, the Armorican Kingdoms. If you haven't looked at the thread, and, indeed, read it thoroughly, don't join. Because, if you don't, I'll be irritated.

The sun's rays lanced through ragged clouds, outlining the jagged fangs of peaks, snow glimmering like a crust of diamonds on their sides.Cliffs, natural pillars, and deep chasms stood embossed against this vista, the endless landscape of stones and snow and mountains fading into a blue-gray eternity in the faraway.Between two cliffs and over a yawning chasm was posted a mouldering rope bridge, strung by some adventurer in times forgotten. A single figure passed painstakingly across this crumbling hanging.He had the light brown hair of an Alsson, high cheekbones of an Arcturan, and the aquiline nose of both. He wore a patchwork mixture of Arcturan Legionare armor and barbarian furs, a reflection of his mixed Arcturan-Alsson heritage, with a curved yataghan blade from the southern land of Zucchara.Alssonus Proximo Gracchus, always wanderer, always adventurer, oft-times gladiator, frequent outlaw, and currently, enemy of the Tuath Mourna tribe of Alssons, finished his crossing and stood at the north side of the swaying rope bridge, looking back down the opposite cliff at the approaching band of Tuath Mourna, wearing their green-dyed wool kilts and wolf skins to cut the cold, waving iron broadswords and shouting their fiercest war-oaths."Black Heart of Julius!" Alssonus spat. They were too close. He could not evade them. But wait...The solution was so obvious.With a two quick strokes from the adventurer's yataghan, one mouldering rope snapped, the bridge flopping sideways, rotted planks and shattered icicles tumbling into the abyss below."DAAAAAHG DUN MAEEEEEEEEEEEEEE...." came the scream of one of the Alsson persuers, a call in the Tuath Mourna dialect of Alsson saying 'Strength to me'."How do you like that, you dogs!" shouted Alssonus, raising his blade into the air to taunt the Tuath Mourna who raged at him from the opposing side."Daedrach-vorrachefang perche! called one of the barbarians. 'Demon-worshipping pig!'"Whess ieun tur ma-ma!" Alssonus shouted back, laughing, a bright smile upon his face. 'Just like your mother!'Alssonus tossed one last rude gesture in the direction of the Tuath Mourna, then departed down the path, really merely a stone hogback fenced on both sides by deep chasms. Alssonus looked forward. There the hogback joined a cliff-face, where two narrow paths wound out of sight along the great bulwark of the mountain.Alssonus stepped down the left path, but did not see the crust of ice.As he plummeted from the cliff path, he thought "Black Heart of Julius!"-----------------+Climbing from his landing spot in a crusty bank of snow, Alssonus shook the stiffness out of his limbs.He appeared to be at the bottom of the chasm which he had plummeted into."Black Heart of Julius!" he cursed, and began to extricate himself from the snow. Below, on the rocky, snow-less floor of the abyss, lay the unfortunate Tuath Mourna who had dropped earlier."Poor bastard." Alssonus said, closing his eyes. He took two copper coins from his money pouch and placed them on the Alsson's eyelids. "Good journey to the Underworld for you, barbarian." he said, saluting the corpse.Then, off he marched. Somewhere, there had to be an exit from this wretched canyon.

Maritann hugged his brown and green leaters around himself tighter against the cold breeze that swept through the canyon. A Chargian outcast followed the path he had picked, his long black hair occasionaly fell infront of his face. He brushed it away with his hand and noticed his red skin it was cold and looked on the verge of frostbite. Maritann stuff his hand hand in his overcoat after he shifted the huge longbow on his back made from wood of his homeland.

Maritann was an outcast because he was an assasin, among his people it was a foul thing to take a life instead of helping it grow and flourish. His long bow was his instrument of death he could firmly say that he could kill a man from a distance that the man wouldn't even see his death coming before an arrow whistled death to him.

Marritan trudged farther on his trail he was walking parralell to a canyon. Uphead he saw a bridge that had been cut in half. Upon looking further he saw a dead body, when he passed both he saw to copper coins in the man's eyes and a set of footprints that lead off on his trail. He smiled maybe there was a village up ahead somewhere in this desolate land where he had been banished too.

Maritann placed his foot on another patch of snow and slid on the ice beneath him and fell head of heels down the steep wall. A spew of obsanities rang through the canyon. He landed on his side ontop a large pile of snow.

"Ooofff." Maritann roled over and saw the dead body. He rolled to the other side and stood up.

Farther down the chasm, Alssonus pulled his wolf-skin cloak closer around his shoulders. With the overhanging ridges and cliffs, little sunlight could reach the bottom of this canyon, and the chill in the shadow was palpable.Stumbling through yet another crusty snow bank, Alssonus peered ahead into the gloom. The canyon formed a dark hallway in his vision, and his exit, glowing brightly with sunlight, was still a long ways off.The adventurer spat and continued trekking, heading towards the light. But wait...What was that?Up ahead, a pile of large boulders encircled a jagged rent in the mountainside. The yawning throat of a cavern enticed Alssonus into thoughts of exploration and treasure. However, there, lying unmistakably in the entrance to that cavern, was a woman.Alssonus rushed to her side, expecting to find an unliving corpse, but, wonder of wonders, she was alive!She was a rather attractive woman, Alsson by dress and look, and she lay as if in a stupor."She must have fallen or somesuch." Alssonus deduced quickly.He removed his flint and tinder from his travel pouch."Guess I'll be staying here for a while. I'll use the cave."He picked up the unfeeling woman and carried her gently into the cave, resting her head against a stone.Then he began to strike the flint and tinder, and before long, he had a merry fire crackling in the mouth of the cavern."A good-looking woman, a fire, food, and I've escaped my pursuers! There have been worse situations." Alssonus reflected, and leaned back against the wall to take a nap.

Athanasia carefully slid along the frozen path on the mountainside. What in the name of the underworld was she doing here? "Lady Fortuna, grant me luck," she gasped as her foot slipped. She regained her footing, and continued down the slope. Inevitably, she slipped again, and this time, fell. But she didn't fall far; she had climbed far enough down that she only had the breath knocked out of her. She lay there for a moment, dazed. She was a product of years of shifting borders and soldiers far away from home out for a good time. A mutt, an Arcturan had called her once, mocking her very mixed ancestry. Her eyes were the blue-green color that suggested a Macrosian somewhere, the dark skin of a Zinaldian, and an Arcturan or an Alsson had given her her long dark hair and a nose that had once been aquiline. (It had been broken once, and had mended crooked.) She was also dressed in a peculiar mish-mash of different styles, in what she deemed practical. She even had acquired a pair of shoes, like the Chargians wore.Perhaps it was the Zinaldian blood in her, but she made a semblance of a living gambling and stealing, and perhaps convincing people to part with valuables. Most times, she rather enjoyed it. Other times, though, it could be a bloody nuisance. Like now. She'd been caught at it, and had chanced to offend the wrong person. That was why she was out on the snow, after falling off a piece of godsforsaken rock. As she sat up, she noticed a cave nearby. "Well, that's very nice. Maybe I won't freeze." She got up, and made her way over. Someone was already there. "Hello?" she asked in the language of the Arcturians. Then, remembering where she was, she repeated herself in the one dialect of Alsson that she knew.

Alssonus looked up abruptly.Somebody was hailing him, another woman."Well! This is just my day, isn't it!" he thought to himself."Hail, the traveller!" he said in Arcturan, getting to his feet. "What brings a girl like you to this gods-forsaken canyon?"

"Mostly fleeing from an irritated Imperial officer. More immediately, gravity and ice." Athanasia made her way into the cave, looking around. "I'm 'Nasia. Hope I'm not, uh, intruding on anything." She eyed the unconscious woman, then sat down without waiting for a reply. Her lack of manners had gotten her in trouble before, but she had never seen fit to change her ways. People she respected merited politeness. There just weren't very many of them.

Maritann stumbled along the glow from a cave not far ahead caught his eyes. He proceeded carefuly not to make much noise less the occupants be foes, a few more steps and he swung down from the top and landed in the cave. His hand laid on the hilt of a short sword he carried, but he dropped his hand as he saw who they were. Two women, one he couldn't tell where she was from, the other looked Zinaldian and Marcosian. Behind them stood a huge man that looked Arcturan-Alsson mixed.

"Good even-ing." Maritann said in bad Alsson, "I stay here." Maritann shifted his long bow and sat down next to the unconsious woman and held his hands close to the fire. His overlapping leathers hid most of his features except for his red skin and dark Chargian eyes.

Alssonus spat into the fire.He wasn't especially inhospitable, but one tends to be irritated when a heavily shrouded and armed man chooses to share your un-offered hospitality. Oh well. No matter.There was enough food for them all, he supposed."Well met, friends. I am Alssonus, late of the Durmalgish Marches. Come and share my fire." he said, offering them both a strip of jerky. "By the way, do either of you know her?" At that, he pointed to the Alsson woman who he had discovered.

"Ahh good. I was afraid we would only be talking in Alsson the whole time, I only know the basics. Me? Simply I make people disappear for a living, if you know what I mean. My people frown on that greatly, but lets nopt talk of that. My name is Maritann how about you two?"

Maritann took a few bites of the meat it wasn't all that good but it was food in the stomach. He took out a flask from his side pocket and took a long pull. After that he grabbed a twig and used it to light the herbs in his pipe. He took a long drag of the mild and relaxing drug. It took the bite out of the cold. He took another long puff then put it out. He didn't want to get completely stoned infront of these strangers just enough so he didn't feel the chill on his back.

Athanasia sat down by the fire, and dug around in her own pack, finally coming up with a piece of dry, hard bread. She said in Arcturan, "I'm 'Nasia." She glanced at the woman again. "Never seen her before. But, considering I've never been here before, that's not too surprising." She ripped a chunk off the bread, and let her mouth be occupied with that for a while. "I just go where Plentimon and Fortuna guide me, and it isn't such a bad life, mostly. Of course, I do occasionally do something foolish, which is why I'm here right now."

"We'd best be careful around that one, eh?" Alssonus said to 'Nasia, winking and grinning broadly. "A jest only, my friend Maritann! As your people always say, a laugh and a smile lift all spirits!"The adventurer turned and, giving a quick glance at the comatose woman, said to them: "I was just about to investigate this cave. Would either of you care to join me? It may be an interesting diversion."He looked thoughtful for a moment, and then said, "Well, you'll come or you won't, but I'm going! I hope our mystery lass doesn't wake up while I'm away!"And, with that, he lit his torch, and stepped into the tenebral gloom of the cave.

"Well, fine, then!" 'Nasia caught up with them, then slipped past Maritann. She twisted around and grinned at him impudently. Turning back around, she said, "So, off exploring we go. Mayhap we'll find us something worth the keeping." I have always trusted to Plentimon and Fortuna. Maybe this is another one of thier little mysteries.

With flaming brand thrust ahead, Alssonus forged ahead into the cave, a chill tunnel banded with iron-hard ice. The passage's twists and turns quickly found the adventurer lost. "Oh Ceremeus, Fortuna, and Plentimon, why do you test me so?" he muttered.

(OOC: You guys are either still behind me or also lost.)---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

Meanwhile, back outside the cave, Boellah Garrtensdottir awoke with a start, brown hair flashing around her head as she looked quickly from side to side. The canyon was empty, but she lay before a fire that grumbled hungrily over dry sticks and twigs. She blew at the fire to give it power, and then mouthed a small prayer to Golla, the protector of women, for sparing her from death at the hands of the Tuath Bohlstaen.Her stomach complained loudly at her hunger, and when she spotted it, she quickly grabbed for a small wrapped portion of dried jerky that sat by the fire. With her stomach contented, Boellah tried to think of what could have brought her here to this canyon."First and foremost," she thought, "I am exiled from my clan and kin."She took it very well, she thought, for having been exiled from her family and people, and for just having been nearly captured and ravished by the Tuath Bohlstaen.But the last thing she had remembered was running from the Tuath Bohlstaen, and then tripping, and falling...Well, then, this must have been the chasm she had fallen into. But who had made this fire, and left this food?"They must be in the cave, there." This she decided after some reflection.She held herself tightly against the cold. She must have lost her fur cloak in the fall.She shivered, and then plunged into the darkness.

"I suspect they just get bored, and like to shake things up every now and again. You get used to it, eventually. Providing, of course, you like through it." She looked around the tunnel. "We'll find our way out. Or something will happen."

Maritann had stopped a ways back tp relieve his bowels that had been moving pretty bad, but now that he has returned no one is aorund and the caves passages are unfamiliar with him. He casts a dark look to the above, he didn't much believe in luck and fortune. He held up his hand and licked his ungloved finger and held it to the air, the air was bloing to the west so the cave entrance must be in the east.

Maritann went east for some time but the winding passages were a jumbling mess, maritann lit up his own torch and continued his dtermined wanderings.

Boellah caught her breath sharply as she fell off of a short drop into a pit of sorts. She was scraped, and her robe was torn, but she assessed that she had no serious injuries. The darkness made her uneasy, and her brand was guttering low. But ahead, she saw another orange light, welcoming in the shadowy chill of the cave.

Maritann wandered down the cave the torch he had, had gone out more than a half an hour ago. His short sword was held out in front of him as he eased around another corner in the dank cavern. Nothing.

Maritann had heard a scream less than ten minutes before and a loud rumble as if something had caved in or someone maybe had fallen down this d**n shaft too.

Maritann walked down the cave, he hated caves, no room to fight or manuver and combat was often sudden, fierce and deadly. Even though they seemed abandon these caves would have made a perfect hideout for some bandit or gang that preyed apon the travelers here.

'Nasia looked around. "This mountain must be a positive rabbit warren." They had been walking for some time, and had not, as of yet, found anything worth the trouble. 'Nasia squinted. She could just barely discern another light ahead of them. "What's that?"